In September, we'll be publishing a wonderful book of surrealistic prose poems, titled Angels & Beasts, by the Romanian-American poet Claudia Serea. Claudia was born in Romania under the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, who was overthrown in 1989. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. The poems in Angels&Beasts are in three sections, drawn from her early childhood, the post-totalitarian period, and her first years in New York.

What's unique about modern Romanian poetry? Writing about the above anthology, one of the best-known contemporary Romanian poets, Andrei Codrescu, said:

“Waking up from a familiar nightmare into an unknown reality is not for the faint‐ hearted. More than two decades after the world and the poetry that buzzed in it shattered, Romanian poets are putting on lab coats, turning on recording devices, scouring the web they broadcast on, photoshopping bits and pieces of shards and routine, and questioning the tragic undertone of the hardwired lament in a culture that questions itself incessantly. Anyone able to hear the sound this poetry makes will be rewarded with a sharpening of their own tools of perception.”

We couldn't agree more. Readers are in for a remarkable experience in September, when Angels&Beasts is published here. In the coming weeks, we'll give you a few glimpses into the surrealistic world of Claudia Serea.